|
|
 |
 |
|
| |
Saturday, Feb. 26 3:00pm ET
Colorado State ends 10-game skid vs. Utah | |||||
|
| ||||||
|
RECAP
|
BOX SCORE
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) -- With Colorado State's momentum slipping away, Shawn Harris provided a highlight worthy of Michael Jordan or his anointed contemporary, Vince Carter. Harris had a breathtaking one-handed dunk on a rebound, and Ceedric Goodwyn scored 13 points during a pivotal stretch of the second half as Colorado State beat Utah (No. 24 ESPN/USA Today, No. 25 AP) 60-49 on Saturday. Goodwyn finished with 21 points, but it was Harris' simultaneous rebound and tomahawk dunk that had his coach and teammates talking after Colorado State (17-10, 7-5 Mountain West) ended a 10-game losing streak against Utah (20-6, 9-3). "That's probably one of the best dunks I've seen in college basketball," Goodwyn said. "I was literally stunned," said Colorado State coach Ritchie McKay. "I thought, 'Is this real?' It really gave us some wind back in our sails." For his part, Harris said he heard a teammate yell from the bench and responded. "I thought it was going to go over my head, but I just grabbed it (in midair) and went for the hoop," said Harris, whose four points came on two dunks. "That's kind of my job, to come off the bench and do something exciting to spark us." Goodwyn seemed inspired, hitting three straight 3-pointers, a 17-foot jumper and a dunk on a backdoor cut to give Colorado State a 43-28 lead with 6:45 remaining. The Utes, coming off a 44-point victory over UNLV, never completely recovered and missed a chance to clinch at least a tie for the inaugural Mountain West title. "We were lucky they didn't kill us by 30," Utah forward Hanno Möttölä said. Colorado State, the nation's best 3-point shooting team (43.6 percent), hit 8 of 15 shots from long range to beat Utah for the first time in six years. The Utes, meanwhile, were 3-for-21 on 3-pointers and shot a season-low 33 percent overall. "CSU came out and played us like it was the game of their season, which it was," Utah's Alex Jensen said. "We didn't match their intensity from the beginning." Utah also failed to exploit its size advantage. The teams finished even in rebounding, and the 6-foot-9 Möttölä scored six of his 11 points on 3-pointers. The other five came from the free throw line. "I'm just embarrassed," Möttölä said. "I've got two games left in my senior year, and I play like I'm a 10-year-old. I'm just soft and not ready to play." Möttölä, playing his second game since tearing ligaments in his left elbow and right thumb, scored all of his points in the second half, and Jeremy Killion added 10 for Utah. Aki Palmer (14) and Ron Grady (10) joined Goodwyn in double figures for the Rams. Utah trailed by eight at halftime and got as close as three seven minutes into the second half. Goodwyn, averaging 17 points a game, took over from there as the Rams pushed the lead back to 17 before Utah started fouling in an attempt to get back into the game. The strategy worked as Colorado State missed 5 of 10 free throws in a two-minute span, and Utah pulled to 55-49 when Möttölä made three free throws with 41 seconds left. The Utes didn't score again, leaving them 4-6 on the road heading into Monday's game at Wyoming. "I believe we are in first place. Maybe we are not," Utah coach Rick Majerus said. "We have won a majority of our games. I think sometimes you have to give other teams credit." The Rams, who have won four straight, held Utah to a season-low 15 points in the first half and hit four three pointers to take an eight-point lead at the break. The Utes entered the game shooting 40 percent from 3-point range but were 0-for-7 in the first 20 minutes. | ALSO SEE Mens College Basketball Scoreboard
AUDIO/VIDEO   Shawn Harris muscles in for a tough dunk.avi: 700 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 Jeff Johnsen flies to the hoop for a layup.avi: 621 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 | |||||